Elon Musk, DeepMind and more pledge not to develop killer robots

WAR, HUH? WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? Not future robot weapons apparently, as a load of tech leaders have pledged not to develop “lethal autonomous weapons”.

The pledge comes courtesy of the Future of Life Institute and was made at the 2018 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Stockholm, all with the idea to prevent the creation of robots that can kill humans without human oversite.

“Artificial intelligence is poised to play an increasing role in military systems. There is an urgent opportunity and necessity for citizens, policymakers, and leaders to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI,” the pledge said.

“In this light, we the undersigned agree that the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine. There is a moral component to this position, that we should not allow machines to make life-taking decisions for which others – or nobody – will be culpable.”

Along with committing to not make killer robots, the signatories of the pledge also want governments to make sure there are rules and regulations in place to prevent the creation of terminators.

“We, the undersigned, call upon governments and government leaders to create a future with strong international norms, regulations and laws against lethal autonomous weapons. These currently being absent, we opt to hold ourselves to a high standard: we will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade or use of lethal autonomous weapons,” the pledge stated.

A healthy handful of robotics companies signed the pledge, suggesting that while some people might fear the rise of the machines, there’re folks who want to make robots that don’t come sporting a killer instinct.

That being said, the pledge prevents the creation of lethal robots; we noticed there’s no word on making androids that can rough people up a bit on their own.

Equally, with plenty of firms taking the moral high ground, there’s scope for robotics companies that don’t give a hoot about humanity to clear up on autonomous weapon military contracts if they so wish. µ

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